


Questioning The Timeline

by Leonidas1754



Series: A Doomed Timeline That's Not All About Doom (Instead There's The Grubs of The Canon Characters) [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Eridan's having another crisis, Eridan's just being a drama queen again, Gen, Karkat's trying to be a good moirail, Moirails, This time it's more about questioning why it's a doomed timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 09:53:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10717059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonidas1754/pseuds/Leonidas1754
Summary: While taking care of his small grubself, Eridan questions why their timeline is doomed. Karkat is just concerned for his moirail and tries to reassure him.





	Questioning The Timeline

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know why, but Eridan really helps me work through times when I'm really down. I'm probably just projecting, but hey, that's me. This AU has become sort of charming to me, in a strange way, and I would like to potentially do more with it other than Eridan being depressed, but I'll save that for another time.  
> In any case, enjoy the story!

“CA, get back here, you’re gonna get lost down there…”

Eridan scooped up his grubself, who was trying to scamper off again. He sighed and pet the grub’s head, letting it chew on one of his fingers. At least his grub’s teeth were dull, so it didn’t hurt much.

Eridan sighed and looked out over the land, continuing to pet his grub. CA, as he called his grubself, didn’t care for the Land of Wrath and Angels much, though Eridan couldn’t blame him. It was disturbingly quiet and generally terrible, and Eridan knew he was partially to blame for that.

Somehow CA had gotten all the way to LoLCaT with Eridan simply walking along beside him.

Eridan smiled softly and lifted CA up, looking into his beady little eyes. “You’ve got a lot of energy. Gonna have to find some way to help you burn it off.”

“Eridan? What the hell are you doing all the way out here?”

Eridan turned to see Karkat walking up to him, looking concerned. Eridan gave him a small smile. “Hey Kar. CA decided to go wandering, so I followed him. What about you?”

“I was talking to Nepeta, she’s having trouble with her grub. Are you okay?” Karkat placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I… No, not really. I was just talkin’ to Ara and… yea.”

“The hell did she say to you?” 

“Well… Did she ever tell you why this is a doomed timeline?”

Karkat shook his head lightly. “No, she… I didn’t want to know. But you did.”

“Can I tell you? Since you didn’t want to know.”

“If it’s bothering you, yea, you should tell me.”

Eridan took a deep breath and looked away, cradling his grub close to his chest. “She told me… It was because some of us didn’t die. And because of that, certain things didn’t happen. I… I was one of them, the ones that were supposed to die. In the best possible timeline, I have to die, along with Fef and Nep and Equ and Tav and- It all happened because you calmed me down and I didn’t confront Sol.”

Karkat listened quietly, looking mortified for a moment before his expression became unreadable. “... You blame yourself.”

“No, Kar, I… I don’t understand. Why did this have to be a doomed timeline? Why couldn’t it have been the main timeline, what happened because of our deaths?”

“I don’t know, Eridan. And honestly? I don’t give a single flying or non-flying fuck. You know why?”

Eridan finally looked to him again. He looked angry, but… A tiny smile pulled at the edges of his lips. Karkat always looked angry after all. “No, I don’t.”   
Karkat looked him in the eyes. “Because I got to help the disastrous excuse of a troll in front of me, and now he’s my moirail. Other me’s can keep their shitty timelines where you’re dead, I’ll take this over any of them. Would it be nice to be the good timeline? Hell fucking yes, but we’re not, so suck it up.”

Eridan laughed, wiping a tear out of the corner of his eye. “Heh, thanks Kar. I can always count on you for a good pep talk.”

“Damn right you can. Now cheer up, I don’t want to have to deal with two sobbing violetbloods and you’re upsetting your grub.”

Eridan looked down to CA, who was tearing up and certainly looked upset as well. “Ah, sorry CA… It’s okay…” He held the grub close and pat it’s head. “See, it’s alright.”

“You know,” Karkat said, reaching up to wrap an arm around Eridan’s shoulders, “never thought you’d be a good caretake for grubs, but would you take a look at that. You’re definitely doing better than some of the others. Nepeta is looking after Equius’s because we’re afraid he’s going to squish the thing accidentally one of these days.”

Eridan shuddered. “Please don’t make me think about something like that, that’s horrifying.”

“Sorry. Surprised the little fuck made it all the way out here, anyways.”

Eridan chuckled as CA nipped at his fingers. “I’m not, he’s got way too much energy, it’s terrible. Where’s your grub?”

“Asleep, for now. He’s with Kanaya.”

“Yea? I have a hard time getting him to sleep, I… don’t think he likes my planet.”

Karkat snorts. “Honestly? Not surprised at all. Your planet is fucking awful. You wanna come over to mine? At least for the day, see if he sleep better there.”

Eridan chuckled. “Sure, why not. I can grab my stuff from my hive and hop over.”

Karkat grinned at him. “Sweet. Just try not to spin into another existential crisis while you’re at it, alright?”

Eridan rolled his eyes. “I don’t do these things on purpose, you know.”

“I know. It’s just something I have to put up with. Seriously though, if those thoughts thoughts start up again, try to hold them off until you get back or something so I can help you deal with that shit.”

“Alright, alright. See you back on LoPaH then.”

“Yea, yea.” Karkat squeezed his shoulder, then walked off. 

To be honest, there was a lot more he wanted to say as he glanced back towards Eridan, who had turned to head towards his own planet and hive. Thankfully they weren’t cooped up on that meteor, since they were able to reclaim their planets, but Eridan wasn’t doing all that well.

He considered attempting to contact that Rose girl again, to see if she could do some of her psychology bullshit to help him, but they’d been cut off from the humans when the timelines split or something, and Karkat wasn’t even sure if she’d help anyways.There was certainly something up with Eridan though, and even if he was less of a douche now, Karkat wasn’t sure he could say that Eridan was actually doing better.

He took a deep breath and kept going. He wasn’t great at this moirail thing, he needed to ask Kanaya for advice, since she’d had Vriska for a moirail once, and you don’t get much more difficult moirails than her.

Karkat jumped through the portal back to his own Land, steeling his resolve. He was going to make a large pile of blankets and soft things and bury Eridan and his grub in it while they watched some of the worse RomComs Karkat had. He wouldn’t even gripe when Eridan was sure to make fun of the cheesier parts.

He was going to be a good moirail, or he’d eat his movie collection.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, and please, leave me a comment telling me what you think! They really make my day and motivate me to write more.


End file.
